Semiconductor chips are routinely manufactured in one location, coated in another location, and then transferred by a transportation apparatus to a third location for incorporation into electronic packages or devices. For example, during laser chip fabrication, the chips are formed from wafers. As an initial step, the wafers are scribed and broken into laser bars. It is then necessary to coat the edges of the laser bars with a coating. The coating is generally a dielectric, semi-reflective coating. The coating process generally occurs in an evaporator or other similar device.
Conventionally, laser bars are manually loaded onto a coating apparatus which is then transported to the evaporator for the coating process. Then, the coating apparatus is removed from the evaporator and the laser bars, now coated, are manually removed from the coating apparatus. A disadvantage of manually loading and unloading the coating apparatus is a lower than desired production yield caused by breakage of the laser bars during the loading and unloading process. Further, manual loading and unloading of laser bars is a labor intensive process.